


Two Steps Forward

by Chaos_Valkyrie



Series: Progression [2]
Category: Phineas and Ferb
Genre: Heinz and Perry are both little Shits, Innuendo, Interspecies Relationship(s), M/M, Mating
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-08
Updated: 2016-09-14
Packaged: 2018-08-13 19:42:01
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,574
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7983799
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chaos_Valkyrie/pseuds/Chaos_Valkyrie
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Perry the platypus sometimes wondered about his coworkers. For being a super-secret spy organization, too many of his peers were dreadful gossip mongers that couldn't seem to investigate their way out of a paper bag. That's why he'd been given the reputation of a cold-hearted hardass. </p>
<p>So as much as he was going to hate being the center of the agency's gossip mill – for weeks, probably – seeing everyone's reaction to his new relationship status was going to be well worth it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Title taken from that old Paula Abdul song, Opposites Attract. 
> 
> Also, if the relationship seems to have moved quite fast (as opposed to the slow slow burn of Agent O), its because in my headspace once animals mutually decide to become mates, that’s pretty much it. It happens. Done deal. So while Heinz had decided that he wanted Perry for a mate pretty much right after his transfer, it took Perry longer to agree because first, he thought Heinz didn’t like him, and secondly, it took Heinz’s constant, adoring presence to make him realize that he could love and be loved in return for the little grouch-a-pus that he is.

Perry the platypus sometimes wondered about his coworkers. For being a super-secret spy organization, too many of his peers were dreadful gossip mongers that couldn't seem to investigate their way out of a paper bag. That's why he'd been given the reputation of a cold-hearted hardass. Just because he didn't socialize much, or make a point of verbalizing his feelings or opinions until absolutely necessary, everyone had decided he was a highly professional robot. 

So as much as he was going to hate being the center of the agency's gossip mill – for weeks, probably – seeing everyone's reaction to his new relationship status was going to be well worth it. 

Heinz and Perry had spent the night snuggled together in the guest room, talking late into the night and learning everything they could about each other. Heinz already knew more about Perry than most of the other agents, thanks to his talks with Bea, Carl and Pinky. But now Perry let slip all the little things that no one knew – his love of sappy romances, his extreme fondness for Christmas, how he could easily quit being an agent tomorrow but would rather die than lose his host family.

And in turn, Heinz shared himself with Perry, all the little things that the open and friendly ocelot had also never shared with anyone. His strange frenemy status with his old nemesis, which he didn't think he'd ever have with Rodney. How extremely touch-starved he was, since his last home had been a preserve, and his new host knew of his agent status. The startling intelligence that he hid under his somewhat goofy facade.

The pair had drifted off to sleep after a while, and Perry grumbled hazily when he woke far too early to yet another tongue bath on the back of his neck. He felt Heinz pause and pull back, which prompted Perry to flip over and start nuzzling into the ocelot’s neck. He felt Heinz freeze, and he paused to look up into shocked eyes.

‘Is this okay?’ Perry asked, prompting Heinz to start nodding frantically.

‘Yes! I mean…’ Heinz chuckled nervously, ‘I didn’t mean to wake you, I was only half awake myself. It just felt right,’ he shrugged and winced. Perry grinned as he started nuzzling at the jut of Heinz’s jawbone, causing the ocelot to moan.

‘You have no idea how hard it was to push you away last time,’ he whispered, prompting Heinz to whimper and wrap his forearms more tightly around the smaller agent.

*****

After spending some time learning about each other in a different way, Heinz and Perry reluctantly left the Doofenshmirtz residence to head into work via Heinz's lair tunnels.

They had both agreed to immediately go public with their relationship, Heinz a bit awed that Perry would be willing to do so so quickly. Perry told him that while he was a fairly private platypus, he saw no reason to hide their relationship from the others. Better to get the gossip out of the way as quick as possible, and also let Heinz's gushing fans know that the ocelot was now, indeed, off the market.

Perry never claimed he wasn't possessive. 

He felt himself purr when Heinz scoffed and said, 'You never had any competition.'

They decided to start with Carl. Heinz and Perry showed up to work excessively early, knowing that Carl would be the only person on site, besides the over-night security. Keeping up a stoic expression, they knocked on the intern's office door, entering at his call of “Come in!”

“Oh, Agent P, Agent O, how can I help you?” the intern asked in a serious tone of voice, apparently already suspecting that Perry was here to lodge a complaint about Heinz's actions from the week prior. Perry really wanted to roll his eyes, but instead maintained his stoicism even as he handed Carl a note.

'We need an HR.67.14.P form,' was what he had written in advance. Carl barely glanced at it before reaching into a folder on his desk.

“I suspected we'd need these... Sorry, Heinz,” he said. He frowned when the platypus and ocelot both refused to take what were most likely complaint forms, instead pointing again at the notepad.

“But I already have them –” he cut off as even Heinz pointed insistently at the notepad. He glanced down, reading over the note more carefully. Then his jaw dropped a little as he read it a third time, intently reading each number and letter as if he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him. 

Perry couldn't help the smug smile that spread across his bill, and looking over at Heinz, eye contact with his new boyfriend caused a deep purr to rumble forth from the ocelot.

“This – this is –“ Carl stuttered.

'The declaration of relationship status form,' Heinz signed proudly. When he finished, Perry took his paw in his, causing Heinz to jump a little, looking down at the platypus with a wide, silly grin. Perry felt his own smile widen in return.

“I – okay, I'll just –” Carl hit a few keys on his computer, his printer whirring into life as it printed out the proper forms. “Are you sure –”

'One-hundred percent,' Perry declared both via sign and animal speak. Heinz reached down and licked Perry on the cheek with an extremely pleased expression.

Carl just stared at them as if he was only just seeing them for the first time. Which, in Perry's case, was probably true. He took the newly printed forms out of the paper tray, shuffling them into a folder and handing it to Perry. 

“You'll need to fill these out and drop them off at Agent Resources sometime soon. Er, what do you want me to do with these?” he asked, holding up the complaint sheets.

'Shred them,' Perry churred, which Heinz then signed to the intern with a pleased grin. The two left the office together, the ocelot yawning widely as soon as they entered the hall. 

'Do you want to go get started on those, and I'll get us some coffee – well, me coffee, I know you prefer tea.'

Perry nodded softly, smiling at his new boyfriend as he squeezed Perry's paw and wandered off to the break room.

Perry walked to his cubicle, trying to maintain a bland expression as he nodded to some of the other agents who were starting to trickle in. A few looked surprised to see him so early, but they saw the folder and probably assumed he was here for a mission or something.

They'd find out just how wrong they were soon enough.

Perry plopped down in his desk chair, opening the folder and grabbed a pen. He started to fill out his part of the forms, leaving Heinz's part for the ocelot to fill out himself. He hadn't gotten very far when a knock sounded on his cubicle wall and Bea walked in without waiting for an answer.

'So, how'd it go with Heinz?' She sniffed the air, her nose wrinkling as she looked at Perry with deep disappointment. 'You reek of ocelot. Did you get into a fight with him or something?'

'Or something,' Perry snarked back. 'And good morning to you too.'

'Yeah, yeah,' she waved off the pleasantries with one paw. 'I thought I told you to play nice!'

'He did,' came a very welcome third voice. 'He played very nice.'

Heinz entered the cubicle, two mugs in his paws. He set Perry's tea down on the desk, before taking a deep drink from his own mug. 'Morning, Bea.'

Bea's expression of acute shock was, by far, Perry's favorite new look for his sometimes friend, sometimes mother hen. Especially as her nose twitched, and he could tell that she'd just realized how much Heinz reeked of platypus.

All right, Perry admitted, they may have gone a bit overboard scent-marking each other. They were both a bit over possessive.

Heinz leaned over Perry's shoulder, looking over the forms. 'That doesn't look too bad.'

Perry nodded. 'We just fill in our names and agent numbers, read over the wordy legalese, then fill in our status and sign at the bottom.'

'Are those the complaint forms Carl had ready?' Bea asked, having finally regained her voice. Her ear was twitching, however, which Perry knew was her tell for when she was completely confused and not wanting to show it.

'Oh no, I had him shred those,' Perry said, hiding a grin behind a sip of tea as her ear twitched violently.

'These are relationship declaration forms,' Heinz added with a purr, one paw lighting on Perry's shoulder. Perry reached up to cover the paw with his own, smiling smugly at Bea.

'Oh.' Her ear twitched again. 'Okay. I've, um, I gotta get back to work. See you later.' She waved vaguely, backing out of the cubicle. Heinz waited a heartbeat, then peeked around the opening.

'Yup, she's headed for the break room.' His own ears twitched. 'And there starts the squealing.'

Perry signed his name with a flourish, handing the pen off to Heinz when he turned back around. The ocelot quickly filled out the forms in his own neat handwriting, before signing his own name and the date on the last form.

'And done! Do you want me to drop these off on my way back to my own cubicle?' he asked, shuffling the forms back into the folder. 

Perry nodded. 'I'll check in with the Regurgitator's surveillance. If we're both free today, I thought we could go spend the rest of the day with my host family. They'll have missed me last night.'

'Oh, okay, well,' Heinz seemed deflated before he caught up with Perry's wording. 'Wait, we?'

Perry looked at him nervously. 'If you want? You'll love them, I promise.'

'You want me to meet your family?' Heinz asked. 'Are you sure? I've never really been around kids before.'

'They'll adore you,' Perry reassured him. Heinz perked up, then nodded.

'Okay then, I'd love to meet them!' Heinz gushed. Perry smiled as the ocelot quickly licked his cheek one last time before heading out to his own cubicle.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heinz's PoV of events so far, before we move on to what comes next.

Heinz had known since the moment he first set eyes on Perry the Platypus that this was the mate of his dreams. 

*****

When he had first come to HQ, he was given a tour of the facilities by Carl. When they entered the training facility, they were met with an assortment of chirps, barks, and grunts as various agents cheered on the two combatants in the main sparring ring.

He saw the small teal platypus deliver a flying kick to his bulkier bulldog opponent, and was lost.

It was something in the way he moved – a creature who looked that awkward shouldn't be able to move with such grace and agility. The wide flat tail, which seemed like it would be more hindrance than help, swung around to deliver a powerful blow. And the small hands with such delicate looking fingers were powerful enough to make the much larger opponent stagger back from one punch.

Or maybe it was the determined jut of his duck bill, or the steely glint in those hard brown eyes. Whatever it was, Heinz was instantly charmed by this creature of contradictions, and he hadn't even met the agent yet!

Heinz signed to Carl, asking who the agents were, and the human obliged him.

“That's Binky the Bulldog and Perry the Platypus. Perry's the current top agent, though from what I've heard, you could give him some competition there...” Carl trailed off as they watched the platypus slowly but surely wear his opponent down.

Perry. Heinz didn't care about competition. He just wanted the name of this adorable personification of unstoppable dynamic fury.

Yes, Heinz did tend to be a bit dramatic in his turn of phrase. He blamed that on his association with Kevin.

The sparring match ended abruptly when Perry delivered an uppercut that knocked the bulldog off his feet. Binky whined when his back hit the mat, holding up a paw to indicate that he was finished.

Carl cleared his throat, causing most of the agents to turn towards them. Perry, on the other hand, did not turn his attention until he had helped Binky to his feet, and clearly checked him over for injuries.

Heinz hoped to Gott that they weren't together. His heart had been on too crazy of an emotional rollercoaster lately to take another blow that quickly.

Then those serious chocolate eyes met Heinz's, and he was lost again.

“This is Heinz the Ocelot, newly transferred from East Coast HQ. He was their top agent, and now he's come to act as nemesis to von Roddenstein...” Heinz stopped paying attention as he barely refrained from wincing. 

The only reason he was top agent was because he had stopped Kevin from blowing up the sun. The severity of the scheme and the ferocity of the battle had forced HQ to send out back-up agents, who found Heinz and Destructicon severely injured. The two had been evacuated by the medics, and Kevin was immediately arrested for his attempted scheme. 

Heinz was given the equivalent of a pat on the head and a reassignment to main HQ, without any say in the matter.

He knows what he did was impressive, but that didn't stop him from feeling terrible about the life-sentence handed to Kevin. He wasn't even given a chance to say goodbye to his best frenemy, just told to pack up and head out.

“...if he needs any help finding things. Heinz,” Heinz tuned back in at his name, “Are you ready to continue the tour?” He nodded up at Carl, glancing back one last time at the platypus agent, who was nodding along at whatever the bunny agent next to him was gushing about.

*****

The next few weeks were frustrating. Heinz tuned in to the rumor mill anytime he heard the name 'Perry' come up – which wasn't often. All Heinz could glean was that the platypus was dedicated, hardworking, and apparently no fun at parties. Perry didn't interact much with the other agents, who all seemed to be put off by his serious and stoic demeanor. A few of the meaner ones referred to him as a hard ass or Monogram's boot licker – needless to say, Heinz refused to take any missions that came up with those jerks. 

His own observation didn't yield much information either. The sparring match had revealed not only his superior physical abilities to Heinz, but also his kindness – he didn't have to stop and help his opponent up or check them for injury. Heinz had certainly never seen such care come from Binky, who always acted like a smug ass when he won a match.

And Perry wasn't a brown noser in the slightest. He came in to work, did his job, and went home – he never lingered or did overtime unless he was specifically asked to. And at meetings Heinz had noticed Perry had a tendency to roll his eyes or even, sometimes, do a very subtle mimicry of the Major behind his back. Heinz liked that he was sassy like that.

Heinz tried to be subtle when asking other agents about the platypus, but he was pretty sure Bea at least was on to him. Carl was oblivious, and Pinky was always eager to share, but Bea was the only one who would volunteer information about the quiet platypus, talking Heinz's ear off whenever they bumped into each other.

She was also the one who told him that, oh by the way, Perry does not have a mate.

Heinz was as happy as he was mortified at the not-subtle wink she gave him.

And Heinz tried, he really did, to just go up and introduce himself to the other agent. But Perry made up for his lack of height by simply oozing confidence. At first, that was what had Heinz intimidated, that self-assured, I don't give a shit attitude. Heinz knew that despite what the rumor mill thought of himself, that in reality, he was clumsy, goofy, and had a bad tendency to ramble, especially when nervous. So every time he came into contact with the monotreme left him flustered and terrified that the platypus would just laugh in his face if he tried to start a conversation.

After a couple of weeks, what kept him away was the grumpy looks the platypus would direct at Heinz whenever they came in contact. Heinz was disheartened – he hadn't done anything, had he, to piss Perry off? Bea tried to reassure him that he hadn't, but he avoided the platypus after that, too embarrassed by the thought that the other agent obviously wanted nothing to do with him.

***** 

Heinz remembered very little of the nine or ten days after he was hit with the Regress-inizor. It was more feeling than memory, like his logic and reason were muffled under a warm blanket, leaving only emotions and impressions behind.

He remembered anger and terror at first, lashing out at the man causing him pain. Hissing and snarling as he was trapped in a small cage and lowered into a pit to lick his wounds.

When the door finally released, he remembered the anger quickly fading at a familiar scent. His mate was here! He was mortified to remember that his simpler self was puzzled at the lack of his scent on his 'mate', and his attempts to rectify that by rubbing all over the unfortunate platypus.

Heinz supposed, in retrospect, that he should be happy that he hadn't immediately tried to mate with Perry right then and there.

The rest of the week was more of that same blur. Happiness at following his mate everywhere he went, protectiveness whenever his mate went to fight that loud man with the thunder, pleasure at keeping his mate covered with his scent to let everyone know that the platypus belonged only to him.

And then complete mortification when the effects were reversed and the first thing his now rational mind saw was Perry's irritated expression. Followed very quickly by the horror that his simpler self had planned to mount his mate-who-wasn't only an hour ago, without Perry's consent or anything.

It was the first time Heinz had ever wished he could simply just drop dead instantly on command. And so he fled in terror instead.

Apparently, no one realized that Heinz was hiding under his desk for the remainder of the day. He saw neither hide nor hair of anyone, and the management never summoned him in to go thwart Rodney. He supposed he should thank Carl for his extra time off.

But the voices, those he wished he couldn't hear. The rumor mill was in full force, talking and laughing about how cute he had been as Perry's shadow. Heinz spent the entire day curled in a miserable ball under his desk, listening as the entire agency mocked him in the hallways.

He avoided coming in to work after that. He wasn't just avoiding Perry now, but the entire herd of agents who seemed to revel in his humiliation with so much joy.

*****

Heinz pulled out of his musings as studied the screen before him. The surveillance team reported that Rodney was still in the planning stages for his latest scheme, and so Heinz had at least two or three days before the scientist attempted his newest scheme.

Purrfect. Now he had the entire day to spend with his new mate.

He'd already seen a few strange looks directed his way, but he supposed that was due to the fact that he had avoided being seen at all for the last week. He could tell a few of the sharper nosed agents had caught his newly combined scent, but Pinky was the first to put two-and-two together and come up and congratulate Heinz.

And to think, less than twenty-four hours ago, he had seriously been planning to come in and hand in his resignation this morning. 

Instead, he had spent an amazing first night getting acquainted with the platypus he had been so sure despised him. Perry, who just as eagerly, if not more quietly, returned Heinz's affections and who agreed to become his mate.

There was a knock at his cubicle entrance, a deep churr causing him to grin.

'Are you free for the day?' Perry asked, brown eyes hopeful. 

Heinz purred. 'Yup. Probably tomorrow as well,' he replied, watching a happy smile lift the corner of his mate's bill.

'Great! I can't wait for you to meet them,' Perry responded, grabbing Heinz by the paw and pulling him out into the hallway. 

The incredulous stares they received as they made their way through the cubicle jungle and towards the exit were worth it in exchange for the feeling of Perry's small but warm paw curled around his own. Feeling bold, he reached down and licked Perry's cheek affectionately, perfectly aware of all the eyes staring at them.

Perry's smug grin, with its little hint of shyness, was the best sight Heinz had ever seen.

Heinz could hear the muffled roar of voices explode once the exit door snicked shut behind them. He purred, allowing his eager mate to tug him along to the correct tube that would take them to his home.

Suck on that, gossip mill. These agents are off the market for good.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was half tempted to have Heinz call Perry, 'the most awesome agent to ever awesome,' but I am not, in fact, a twelve-year-old girl. Despite how much I tend to giggle while I write.
> 
> Since things are going to be busy here for a while, I'm still doing single-fic postings, twice a week. So the other series I'm working on will post more slowly, not twice a week like Agent O. So don't think I'm not working on stuff - I am, it'll just be coming out more slowly.
> 
> Hope you enjoyed Heinz's PoV! There'll be one more chapter to this fic coming up soon!

**Author's Note:**

> ‘After spending some time exploring each other in a different way,’ – Am I Evil? Yes, yes I am. I left this vague on purpose, so you can interpret it however you choose – either they just cuddled more or had flat out filthy cross-species sex. Works either way.
> 
> Truthfully, I write innuendo, but not porn. Will I read pwp – yes, yes I will. But I always feel like an idiot writing it, so you’ll probably never see anything particularly graphic from me. But the innuendo and build up and aftermath, yes, I do that.


End file.
